Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History -- 20th century; Titanic (Steamship)
John Collins, assistant cook on the _Titanic_, also gave his
interesting testimony before the Senate Committee. He appears to have
come on deck at the last moment on the starboard side and witnessed
the Engelhardt boat when it floated off into the sea, he being carried
off by the same wave when he was amidships on the bow as the ship
sank, and kept down under water for at least two or three minutes.
When he came up, he saw this boat again--the same boat on which he had
seen men working when the waves washed it off the deck, and the men
clinging to it. He was only about four or five yards off and swam over
to it and got on to it. He says he is sure there were probably
fifteen thereon at the time he got on. Those who were on the boat did
not help him to get on. They were watching the ship. After he got on
the boat, he did not see any lights on the _Titanic_, though the stern
of the ship was still afloat when he first reached the surface. He
accounts for the wave that washed him off amidships as due to the
suction which took place when the bow went down in the water and the
waves washed the decks clear. He saw a mass of people in the wreckage,
hundreds in number, and heard their awful cries.
CHAPTER V
ALL NIGHT ON BOTTOM OF HALF SUBMERGED UPTURNED BOAT
“O God of our salvation, Thou who art the hope of them that
remain in the broad sea....”--Ps. 65:5, 7.
ALL my companions in shipwreck who made their escape with me on top of
the bottom-side-up Engelhardt boat, must recall the anxious moment
after the limit was reached when “about 30 men had clambered out of
the water on to the boat.” The weight of each additional body
submerged our lifecraft more and more beneath the surface. There were
men swimming in the water all about us. One more clambering aboard
would have swamped our already crowded craft. The situation was a
desperate one, and was only saved by the refusal of the crew,
especially those at the stern of the boat, to take aboard another
passenger. After pulling aboard the man who lay exhausted, face
downward in front of me, I turned my head away from the sights in the
water lest I should be called upon to refuse the pleading cries of
those who were struggling for their lives. What happened at this
juncture, therefore, my fellow companions in shipwreck can better
describe. Steward Thomas Whiteley, interviewed by the New York
_Tribune_, said: “I drifted near a boat wrong-side-up. About 30 men
were clinging to it. They refused to let me get on. Somebody tried to
hit me with an oar, but I scrambled on to her.” Harry Senior, a
fireman on the _Titanic_, as interviewed in the London _Illustrated
News_ of May 4th, and in the New York _Times_ of April 19th, is
reported as follows: “On the overturned boat in question were, amongst
others, Charles Lightoller, Second Officer of the _Titanic_; Col.
Archibald Gracie, and Mr. J. B. Thayer, Jr., all of whom had gone down
with the liner and had come to the surface again”; and “I tried to get
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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